I. A V A N D U L A - L E B E C K I A. 



iiuipid. The first arc all aromatic plant?, and exceed- 

 ingly uniform in their properties. They contain 

 essential oil in abundance, which imparts to them a 

 peculiar sweet, though sometimes strong and pene- 

 trating odour, and a warm and pleasant taste ; hence 

 they yield some of our most grateful stimulants and 

 spices. 



The old genus Laurus has been divided by modern 

 botanists, and its species arranged in three or more 

 genera, or sub-genera, called Laurus, Pcrsea, and 

 Cinnawoinum. The first includes the bay, the false 

 benzoin, and other laurels with two-celled anthers 

 and naked fruit. The second, the cassia, the true cin- 

 namon, and the camphor, in which the anthers are 

 four-celled, and the fruit covered. And the third, 

 the alligator-pear. 



Laurus nobilis, the bay, is the only European plant 

 belonging to the type. It is aromatic, like the rest 

 of its associates ; and before the introduction of the 

 rxotic species, bay-berries and bay-leaves were much 

 esteemed in medicine. Its use in forming crowns for 

 heroes and scholars, has long been also obsolete, 

 though conquerors' statues still bear a sculptured 

 wreath of barren boughs, while the Baccalaureate de- 

 gree remains a symbol that the victories of Apollo 

 are more fruitful than those of Mars. 



Laurus Borbonia is the true red bay ; it yields the 

 Isabella wood, so much prized on account of its 

 satiny appearance, for cabinet work ; and its roots 

 afford a violet dye. L. chlbraxylon and L. Indica, the 

 green-wood and the royal bays, are both much 

 valued for their timber ; the first is hard and tough, 

 and from its common use in machinery, is called cog- 

 wood ; the latter is light, of a yellow colour, and 

 known as Madeira mahogany. 



The sassafras of medicine is the wood of the 

 L. sassa,ras. The alligator-pear is the fruit of 

 the Pcrsea gratissima, an excellent West India fruit. 

 The cinnamon of commerce is procured from several 

 species, but the best is that obtained from the Cinna- 

 momum verum. The juices of L. caustica are highly 

 irritating ; the bark of the L. culilaban is the clove- 

 scented cinnamon; and from the fruit of L. glauca, a 

 concrete oil is extracted, which is used in the manu- 

 facture of candles. The other genera, in this order, 

 are the Cryptocarya,Tetranthera, Cassytha, and another, 

 which has some affinity to Luurinee, is Agathophyllum. 



LAVANDULA (Linnaeus). A genus of under- 

 shrubs and herbs, natives of Europe. This well-known 

 family belongs to Labiates. Two of the sorts are cul- 

 tivated, and all are favourites, either tor the beauty of 

 their flowers, or the sweetness of their scent. The 

 flowers and leaves of these plants have long been 

 used as perfumes ; and the ancients employed them 

 to aromatise their baths, and to give a sweet scent to 

 water in which they washed ; hence, indeed, their 

 generic name, Lavanduta. The oil of L. spica is more 

 pleasant than that of the other species, and is distin- 

 guished in commerce by the name of oil of spike, 

 while the others are called oils of lavender. Sixty 

 ounces of flowers yield only one ounce of oil ; henco 

 its high price, and the continual adulteration of the 

 genuine drug with oil of turpentine. It contains a 

 fourth of its weight or more of camphor, is a power- 

 ful stimulant, but its chief consumption is as a per- 

 fume ; large quantities of the flowers are annually 

 brought to London, where it is used by the citizens 

 to porfume their wardrobes, and to expel the cloth- 

 freuin? moths. 



LAVATERA (Linnaeus). A genus of shrubs and 

 annual and perennial herbs, chielly natives of the 

 temperate parts of the world. Class and order Mon- 

 adclplna 1'olyundria, and natural order Malvacece. 

 Generic character : calyx half five-cleft ; invoiucrum 

 of one three-lobed leaf: petals inversely egg-shaped ; 

 stamens united in a cylinder ; anthers kidney-shaped ; 

 style simple ; stigmas several, like bristles ; capsules 

 many, one-seeded, and disposed in a crown. The 

 shrubby Larateras are green-house plants of easy cul- 

 ture. The herbaceous species are mostly annuals, and 

 are planted in the open air. 



LAWSONIA (Linnaeus). A genus of tropical . 

 trees, belonging to the eighth class of Linnaeus, and 

 to the natural order Salicaria. These trees succeed 

 well in our stoves, and are propagated by cuttings. 

 The L. alba is by some writers supposed to be the 

 Gopher wood of Scripture, and is the plant that affords 

 the celebrated henna, or al-hanneh of the Arabs. It 

 is a curious fact that the unarmed variety should be 

 spread over Egypt, Persia, and India, and be found 

 even in America ; while the L. spinosa is confined to 

 the New World. A paste made of the pounded 

 leaves of this plant is much used by the Egyptians, 

 Arabs, and Turks, to dye their nails ot a yellowish 

 dark-red hue. This practice can be traced to a very 

 high antiquity, for there is evidence that the nails of 

 mummies have been so dyed. It does not seem that 

 the women use henna either to heighten their own 

 beauty, or to render their children more lovely ; but 

 rather as a mark of dignity, as slaves are forbidden to 

 employ it. From the great esteem in which henna is 

 held, and its vast consumption as an article of the 

 toilet, it is cultivated expressly in Egypt for export to 

 Constantinople, and yields the Pacha a considerable 

 revenue. Henna is also used to dye the manes of 

 horses, as well as to dye wool and leather. The 

 flowers have a strong, and, to most 'Europeans, a dis- 

 agreeable odour ; but, notwithstanding their powerful 

 hircine scent, the Oriental ladies use a water distilled 

 from them as a cosmetic, and put them in beaupots to 

 perfume their apartments. 



LEAD. This mineral, next to iron, may be 

 considered as the most useful of our subterranean 

 treasures. The natural compounds of lead are too 

 numerous to admit of a separate description ; but the 

 most important is the sulphuret, from whence the 

 pure metal is chiefly procured. 



Native carbonate of lead is one of the most beauti- 

 ful of the metallic ores ; it occurs crystallised and 

 fibrous, the former being transparent, and the latter 

 generally opaque. It is soft and brittle, and occa- 

 sionally tinged green with carbonate of copper, or 

 grey by sulphuret of lead. The octohedron is its 

 primitive form, but it also occurs prismatic and tabular. 

 This mineral is found in abundance both in Cumber- 

 land and Durham, and the acicular variety, possessing 

 great beauty, in Cornwall. 



The sulphuret of lead is less beautiful than the 

 preceding, but much more extensively diffused. Its 

 primitive form is the cube, of which there are several 

 modifications, and among them the octohedron. The 

 greatest quantities of this mineral are found in our 

 own island, and in the northern parts of the continent 

 of Europe. It may be proper to add that the greater 

 part of the specimens of this mineral contain silver. 



LEBECKIA (Thunberg). A genus of shrubs 

 and under-shrub?, natives of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 belonging to Leguminoxee. They are kept in green- 



